Canucks' power play fizzles in 3-1 loss to Penguins

Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins loses control of the puck as he attempts to split the defense of Keith Ballard #4 of the Vancouver Canucks and Andrew Alberts #41 of the Vancouver Canucks on November 17, 2010 at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Photograph by: Jamie Sabau
, Getty Images

PITTSBURGH — The Vancouver Canucks played a great three-game tour. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of a five-game trip that ended disappointingly Wednesday with a 3-1 loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

After opening eight nights earlier in Montreal with a sloppy 2-0 loss, the Canucks worked their trip back to 2-1-1 with wins in Toronto and Ottawa, and an impressive comeback in a 4-3 overtime loss Monday in Buffalo.

But staring at greatness Wednesday — literally and figuratively — the Canucks were shoddy again with the puck and atrocious on their power play, from which the Sidney Crosby’s Penguins produced two of their three goals.

And so the Canucks flew home into the night 2-2-1 — a definition of mediocrity.

“If you want to be an average team, it’s a good road trip,” Canuck captain Henrik Sedin said. “But we want to be a good team, a great team. We had the chance tonight to be 3-1-1 on the road trip and our execution was way off. That’s not good.”

“We can’t be satisfied with a .500 road trip,” Daniel Sedin said. “That’s the bottom line. Last year, we started off the same way. We need to realize we’re a good team ... and playing on the road we need to be better.”

Nearing the quarter-pole of their National Hockey League season, the Canucks’ road record is 4-5-2. And this is with the league’s best road power play. Until Wednesday.

Not only did the Canuck power play go 0-for-5 and fail at critical times, it coughed up a pair of goals as the Penguins beat Vancouver in Pittsburgh for the first time in 10 years.

Seven seconds after his holding penalty ended, Crosby made it 1-0 at 16:43 of the first period by beating Canadian Olympic teammate Roberto Luongo with a low, stick-side shot on a breakaway. With Crosby about to emerge from the penalty box, Canuck winger Mikael Samuelson banked a pass to the point that was too hot for defenceman Kevin Bieksa to control. It bounced to Crosby.

Shorthanded again, the Penguins made it 2-0 at 5:44 of the second period when Maxime Talbot scored on a wraparound as Luongo was slow to adjust after a 2-on-1 rush — the Penguins’ second of the disadvantage — was broken up.

“We had the opportunity tonight with a win in this building to make this a real good road trip and now we come out of it with .500,” Canuck coach Alain Vigneault said. “We should have been able to do better. Obviously, our power play which had been real good, tonight had a tougher time. The first goal, Crosby was coming out of the box and we made a bad play in their end. And their second goal, we gave them three scoring chances while we were on our power play. Our execution tonight wasn’t what it needed to be against a strong opponent.”

Christian Ehrhoff fumbled away the puck in the shadow of his uprights, unable to make a fair catch on a tumbling disc and causing a scramble that ended with Arron Asham bunting the puck into the Canuck net at 9:04 for a 3-0 Penguin lead.

Vancouver defenceman Dan Hamhuis then made two plays to give his team a chance.

At 9:38, he converted Henrik Sedin’s pass to make it 3-1 after Canuck Alex Burrows carried wide on a 4-on-3 and passed back into space.

Even better, Hamhuis finally gave the Canucks a great save about four minutes later. He stacked his shin pads to block Evgeni Malkin’s shot towards an open net after Luongo tripped over the back of his net, having narrowly avoided tripping over the puck behind it.

The Canucks carried the play in the third period but couldn’t beat goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who had few difficult saves to make.

ICE CHIP: Defenceman Keith Ballard was solid upon returning from a four-game banishment to the press box. He had the hit of the night, a hip check that felled Evgeni Malkin, and finished plus-one.

Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins loses control of the puck as he attempts to split the defense of Keith Ballard #4 of the Vancouver Canucks and Andrew Alberts #41 of the Vancouver Canucks on November 17, 2010 at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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